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Lepage the filmmaker
Director, writer, actor Robert Lepage is one of Canada's most renowned figures in performing arts. Highlights from his astonishing oeuvre include epic plays, The Dragon's Trilogy and Needles and Opium, award-winning films, Le Confessional and Far Side of the Moon, and even rock shows. This Quebec native continues to push artistic boundaries, earning his reputation as this country's creative genius.
"I was afraid people wouldn't like it for technical reasons," says Lepage, "It's an ambitious... big spaghetti of a film with subtitles." Lepage goes on to say that he has no problem with people not liking his work but does worry that his work is sometimes misunderstood.
• Lepage's play Le Polygraphe, which he made into a film in 1997, was based on Lepage's real life experience. Lepage was interrogated for the 1980 murder of a close friend. The real murderer was arrested two years later.
• As an actor, Robert Lepage made his on-screen film debut in Denys Arcand's Jesus of Montreal (1989). Lepage played the role René based on Pontius Pilate.
• The 2001 New York premiere of Lepage's multimedia theatrical work called Zulu Time, which reunited Lepage and musician Peter Gabriel, was cancelled following the events of September 11. Set in airports, Zulu Time was inspired by Lepage's own fear and dislike of flying. Coincidentally the show culminates in the crash of a plane hijacked by terrorists.
• Films Lepage has directed and written include:
- Le Confessionnal (1995)
- Le Polygraphe (1997)
- Nô (1998)
- Possible Worlds (2000)
- La face cachée de la lune (Far Side of the Moon, 2003).
• Lepage is currently based in Quebec City where he lives with his long-time partner American actor/writer Kevin McCoy (2004).
Program: Midday
Broadcast Date: Sept. 14, 1995
Guest(s): Robert Lepage
Host: Tina Srebotnjak
Duration: 12:40
Scenes from Le confessional: Cinéa, Cinémaginaire Inc., Enigma Film.
Last updated: February 16, 2012
Page consulted on December 12, 2012
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Lepage's isolated adolescence in Quebec City.
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Director, writer, actor Robert Lepage is one of Canada's most renowned...